We Are Family - As a petition drive begins opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment, I was thinking about an idea I recently read about somewhere. It proposed the concept of a coming-out day for families -- each family that has a gay member would make some kind of public statement of support. In effect, it would leverage the members of our families -- parents, siblings, etc. -- to promote the message of inclusion. It makes me wonder how my mom and dad or Jamie's would feel about such a thing. (Both sets bore two gay kids.)

I know our parents are pretty comfortable at this point with their gay kids. They do quite well with their respective sons-in-law, too. I've never been witness, however, to the parents telling anyone about us. Clearly they have done so, since many relatives and family friends are in-the-know. But every last moment of revelation has escaped my direct observation.

It's a truism that families have to come out (and come out of homophobia) just like individuals do. The words "I have a gay son" (or grandson or brother) can have a powerful impact when spoken to another person. I agree that we could greatly advance the gay agenda if more of our family members spoke up about us.

So the question remains... How far would my parents -- or Jamie's or Ben's -- go in this regard? It's a conversation I've never had with mine. I know they are private people in general, but I'm sure they would publicly support me if it would make a difference. If the marriage amendment really makes it to the approval stage, they are the first line of defense I would go to. So perhaps I'll be finding out.